If she’s to win the governor’s race, General Treasurer Gina M. Raimondo’s recipe for success is bound to include a big fundraising advantage and her leadership in the state pension overhaul. But apparently,...

If she’s to win the governor’s race, General Treasurer Gina M. Raimondo’s recipe for success is bound to include a big fundraising advantage and her leadership in the state pension overhaul. But apparently, the Raimondo recipe also includes three eggs, half a cup of sugar and an ounce of bittersweet chocolate.

On Feb. 23, Raimondo sent out an email titled “Sunday supper,” recalling that while growing up in Greenville, she learned to cook from her grandfather. And now she, her husband and her two children “set aside some time to cook Sunday supper and eat together.” The email includes photos of Raimondo cooking with her family and a video of her appearance on “Ciao Italia,” a TV cooking show with Mary Ann Esposito.

The culinary emphasis comes as Raimondo attempts to become Rhode Island’s first female governor. And it comes as a Providence Journal/WPRI poll shows her trailing Providence Mayor Angel Taveras among women likely to vote in the Democratic primary (31 percent for Taveras, 25 percent for Raimondo, 15 percent for Clay Pell).

By itself, “Sunday supper” might just be another day in the week of a gubernatorial campaign. But it comes amid a series of videos in which supporters talk about the “Gina We Know.” And it’s part of a larger battle to define her as either Gina from Greenville — or Wall Street Raimondo.

Public-employee unions have blasted her over state hedge-fund investments and pension cuts (speaking of cooking, protesters have claimed she “cooked the books”). And Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi has called her “an ostentatiously ambitious 42-year-old Rhodes scholar and former venture capitalist” who let the state be used as a national “test case” for pension cuts.

Former Brown University Prof. Jennifer L. Lawless, director of American University’s Women & Politics Institute, said Raimondo’s email and video highlight the difficult balance that female candidates must often strike.

“That was an attempt to demonstrate that she can relate to the average woman in Rhode Island — having a job, raising kids, putting food on the table,” she said. “The potential downside is it can seem artificial, and she needs to make sure she is not doing it as the expense of those attributes that have led to her political success — being strong, being perceived as a very competent businesswoman.”

Lawless said it reminds her of the “I’m in” video in which Hillary Clinton sat on a couch at home, presenting a softer image as she kicked off her 2008 presidential campaign.

“Clinton had a very difficult time deciding whether she was a fighter standing up to big interests or a woman who understands the average struggle other women face,” she said. “The best plan is one of authenticity. We’re at a time in politics where it’s tricky to navigate: The book ‘Lean In’ is telling women: ‘You can do it all.’ But there’s some backlash: ‘Why are you telling me I have to do it all?’”

In the video, Raimondo wears a green-white-and-red “Ciao Italia” apron. And Lawless (who ran for Congress here in 2006) said, “I don’t think there is any downside to emphasizing” Italian heritage in Rhode Island politics.

As I watched the video, a pop-up ad for Pell appeared, blocking out the cake Raimondo was making. It was just the latest sign that we have all the ingredients for a particularly spicy governor’s race.